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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29355906">Together in Every World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_Oreo/pseuds/Purple_Oreo'>Purple_Oreo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!, 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baudelaire and Chuuya are friends, F/F, Haikyuu!! in the Bungou Stray Dogs world, Jealous!Dazai, Kuroken and Bokuaka get transported to yokohama, M/M, OC!CharlesBaudelaire, Soukoku, bsd is the superior fandom, headcanons on their personalities, i highly suggest not reading this if you're a haikyuu stan, it's dazai's perspective so ofc he's gonna judge them, mild bokuto slander in the first ch, no joke i actually got bored of haikyuu half way through this, oh yeah i forgot there's a really important oc, ok and a bit about the haikyuu chars since i forgot about them, passive agressive haikyuu slander, prewritten, shin soukoku will be there in later chapters i promise, the story is centered around finding the backstory of the oc lmao how did i forget about him, this is gonna be long be prepared, uh, you'll have to see ig</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:42:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,942</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29355906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_Oreo/pseuds/Purple_Oreo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dazai wasn't expecting to find four new faces in the cafe downstairs. But letting them stay with the Agency had been a good idea, they had incredibly valuable information on most gifted people in Yokohama. All ability users are authors in that parallel universe, with similar personalities and books as ability names. The main problem is an old friend from Dazai's Port Mafia days. Chuuya has a troubling friend who is extremely secretive. No matter how much Dazai tries to dig up on him, it proves to be a waste of time. Just who was this guy?</p><p>Kuroo had never thought much about supernatural abilities. They didn't exist, they couldn't exist, and that was the end of it. But now, being put into a world where they did exist, it was a change that no one was going to get used to too soon. But there also seems to be something wrong with the people here. They have the Mafia to haunt their streets but they're also friends with them? So many enemies, but they consider them as just people? The Agency themselves were pretty violent, criminals among them, but they were on the side of the law. How were their morals such that they can get along casually with murderers?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs), Edogawa Ranpo/Edgar Allan Poe (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Four New Faces</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ok so if you decided to actually read this, I'm pretty surprised. When I said passive-agressive Haikyuu slander, it wasn't a joke. I think Haikyuu is a kind of really boring world but the characters are good so I decided to just liven up their lives a little bit :) </p><p>As for OC Charles Baudelaire, the plot is centered around finding out more about him since he's a very secretive person...</p><p>OK AND IM BORED OF THAT LINE OF THOUGHT so a little bit of information. I had the first 4 chapters prewritten to give me some time to keep up a good posting schedule since this is the first actually long fic that I'm posting.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dazai grabbed his jacket and stood up, earning a raised eyebrow from Kunikida. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where do you think you’re going?” Kunikida asked, slight suspicion in his voice. Dazai ignored it and gave him a cheery smile. “No need to worry, I’m just visiting the cafe. Care to join me?” he asked and Kunikida shook his head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine but make sure you finish your paperwork for the day, it’s already long overdue. I know it’s already time we should go home however we all have extra work we can be finishing” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, yes, it’ll be fiiiiiine.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And with that, Dazai threw open the doors and made his way downstairs to the cafe where he was slightly surprised to see new faces. There were 4 teens in casual clothing, asking something from the cafe owner who seemed rather confused and distressed. Dazai stepped over and waved his hand to catch their attention. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hellooooo, you guys seem lost... why don’t you come and have coffee with me instead of disturbing our lovely coffee master here.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The teenagers exchanged glances before agreeing. Dazai wasn’t actually interested in helping them though, the cafe owner was just way too precious to the Detective Agency. The Agency would often go out of their way to make sure that the cafe is safe, just because of the trouble that they often caused them thanks to the enemies they created. There was even that time that someone went as far as to kidnap him and rip off his nails, after which everyone had agreed to keep a safer watch on him and his cafe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The five of them slid into a booth, with the four of them squished into one side, and Dazai sitting freely by himself on the other. He wanted to point out that it would be easier if one of them just came to his side, but decided not to as it really wasn’t his problem if they were uncomfortable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, what’s up with you boys?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first person to speak up was the most rational looking of the four with short, dark, raven hair that fell down in messy curls. He had dark turquoise eyes and a calm and aloof expression. “Me and my friends live in Tokyo and are high school students. We were all having a sleepover but when we woke up, we found ourselves in the storage room of this cafe and I’m not exactly sure how. The cafe owner told us that this is Yokohama?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai raced through his brain. There were a lot of current possibilities including that these guys were spies for an organisation, or they were regular teenagers trying to prank them. It was still unconfirmed if they were gifted or not, and if they weren’t, there was the chance that they weren’t even aware of gifted. If they weren’t aware of gifted or gifted themselves, they could have been victim to underworld crimes such as organ trafficking, human trafficking, to be raped, the possibilites could go on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai decided to start off with if they were gifted or not. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ok so let me start with this, are any of you gifted?” Dazai tried to make it sound believable in case they didn’t know. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My friend over here and I are in gifted programs but I don’t see how that’s relevant.” The same boy from earlier was talking. Dazai took note of how he wasn’t saying anyone’s names but instead pointed at a taller one with spiky hair that stuck up in the weirdest ways. So they were smart, that didn’t cross out the chance that they were spies though. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I have an idea then!” Dazai said happily, “I work in the office above, so why don’t we just make our way there! You can talk to my boss, the president, and maybe you might recognise someone or anything.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dark blue eyes eyed him suspiciously. “We have no reason to believe that you are safe to trust, what is your job? What is your president’s name?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai laughed. This one seemed pretty smart. And subtly protective of the muscly one who he sat beside who also had spiky hair and large yellow eyes. It had actually taken Dazai a second to realise what he thought was strange about him, but now he realised that he was constantly physically reassuring the bigger one and whispering to him the most before Dazai had started talking to them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m a private detective, working for the Armed Detective Agency.” he said, waiting for a response. Most people were able to recognise the name even if they weren’t part of the gifted world or the underworld. But instead of a reaction, he got four blank stares. Dazai deemed those as real reactions and not acting. He could tell lies apart from truth pretty easily and these guys were genuine. Hmmm.. was this the work of an ability user? “So it seems you’re not aware of the ADA… my president’s name is not for my disposal, however I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> tell you my name,” he said as they had no answer, “I’m Dazai. Dazai Osamu.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The cafe had gone silent for a minute as Dazai finally introduced himself. He took advantage of that and added a bit of drama to make it all the more memorable for them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll give you four a minute to decide, I’ll go get my coffee.” He said after a small pause, standing up to do just that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He made his way to the counter and got his usual order along with the usual conversation and berating to pay his tab which he cheerfully ignored. He looked at the waitress, didn’t Lucy work here now?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where’s Lucy?” he asked her while sipping his coffee. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s off today, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days she doesn’t work.” the waitress answered calmly, as though he hadn’t just asked her to kill either herself or him. “Those teenageres are waiting for you by the way,” she added, keeping up her practiced smile and not even looking over at them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai turned and saw that they were in fact done with their whisper conversation. Well of course he knew that they were done because he could no longer hear their whispers in the background, but gotta keep up the act. Dazai turned back to her with wide eyes, “How could it be?? Not only are you incredibly pretty but amazingly smart! Such a pity you always refuse my requests…” he said feigning a heartbreak. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Smirking slightly at the eyeroll he got from the waitress, he made his way to the teeagers again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Done talking?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They all nodded, nervousness written all over their faces. “We’ll come with you,” the same boy said again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai was slightly confused as to why only the one person was doing all of the talking especially since he didn’t even seem like the oldest of the four. The oldest seemed to be one with spiky black hair, followed by owl eyes, raven hair, and finally a small bleached blond. In any case, they would all have to speak up eventually so he didn’t really care. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, just follow me then~!” and with that, he led all of them up to the third floor before throwing open the doors to the agency. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first thing he saw was Kunikida looking at him as though he were expecting Dazai to say ‘I just convinced a fire wielding ability user to blow up a government building and now the special abilities department is after us’. As if. Ignoring his overly worried partner, he saw Yosano, Ranpo, Kenji, and Haruno. Everyone else was out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everyone! (Min’na-San~!) We have guests!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ooh,” Yosano was the first person to respond, coming over to investigate along with Kenji and Ranpo. Kunikida, on the other hand, stayed where he was and had an annoyed look. The blond rolled his eyes and got back to work. Haruno did the same but without the eye roll or non verbal complaints. The other three set on examining the four strangers while Dazai stepped back and watched with a satisfied smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello! I’m Akiko Yosano, the doctor for the Armed Detective Agency! If you ever get hurt, you know who to go to!” Yosano introduced herself happily while shaking hands with the black spiky haired one before moving on to examining his arms. “Wow.. you’re certainly fit, but none of you have any scars.. Do they believe that you’re too young to be sent to fight or something? Or are you so good that you’ve never gotten hurt in a fight?” she asked, curiosity spilling from her tone of voice and expression. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The boy looked at the doctor with a mix of horror and confusion, “We play sports, why on earth would we want to be in fights?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai had to hold back a laugh. Sports? These guys were nothing more than some high schoolers who liked to play some school club sport together? Of course, he had noticed that they exercised as well, but the chances that someone that fit ended up in the cafe right under the ADA by accident were rather low. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kenji, instead took a liking to the shortest one who had black hair that was bleached blond and needed to have the roots redone as the black was showing again. “Hi!!! We’re the Armed Detective Agency! What do you guys do?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The boy looked incredibly shy and looked up at the spiky black haired guy first. In return, he gave him a small smile which led to the blond reluctantly looking back at Kenji. “We’re volleyball players…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see! That’s that sport right?” Kenji asked happily, still not entirely well-versed on all the concepts of the rest of the world outside his farm. The boy nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo looked curiously from face to face before finally speaking up. “What are your names?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kuroo Tetsurou..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bokuto Koutarou.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Akaashi Keiji.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Kenma… Kozume…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see…” Ranpo said all mysteriously, “Edogawa Ranpo. And you had better remember that name because you’re talking to the best detective in the world!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kenji Miyazawa! Nice to meet you!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They all mumbled little ‘nice to meet you’s and looked at looked at them expectantly. Dazai figured they would probably want to know how they ended up in Yokohama overnight from their perfect little high school world of matches and tournaments. He was pretty curious too as to how they had somehow ended up here, seeing as they didn’t know about the existence of ability holders and the Detective Agency. Even people who didn’t believe in supernatural abilities had at least heard of the Agency which dealt with cases that were out of the hands of the police and government. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yosano started showing them to the sitting area, probably to question them, and Dazai was going to join before being pulled aside by Ranpo. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is it?” he asked the detective. He had his eyes open wider, so Dazai realised he should take him seriously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I have a theory, but there is some information that I am missing. I need to make a phone call.” Ranpo told him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai nodded and they made their way to the meeting room, Ranpo carrying a bag of lollipops with him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sitting at two chairs next to each other, Dazai pulled the old fashioned phone towards them and looked expectantly at Ranpo for a phone number. Ranpo instead took the phone himself and dialed a number rather quickly, as though it were a phone number he was familiar with. That was kind of strange, whoever did Ranpo talk to using the Agency phone? As the number rang, Ranpo put it on speaker before they heard the other end pick up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Poe-Kun?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo takes out a lollipop. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh.. Ranpo-San? Is that you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes of course, who else calls you from the Agency’s official phone?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right.. Is there something that you need?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The agency happens to have some interesting guests today, would you happen to know anything about them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well who are the guests?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aren’t you a detective? You should be able to tell me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo savours his lollipop during the small pause that follows. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is it 4 teenage high schoolers?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bingo!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need more information.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mean, as my rival.. You can’t figure out a mystery I have created?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo bites a bit of his lollipop in frustration. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Which ability am I missing? I don’t know the person and I’ve never heard of them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s a tone of warning and anger in there. Was this what Ranpo was like when he was putting his wits up against someone?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine, his name is Charles Baudelaire but that’s all I’m giving you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A bell goes off in Dazai’s head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see… thank you for the information Poe-Kun, you’ve been a great help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What- I didn’t mean to help you! This is just me showing that I can be a better detective.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes yes, oh and by the way, another thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Next time, I want the donuts that have the strawberry filling, not raspberry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh I see… But still the powdered sugar?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be sure to remember that next time Ranpo-San.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo grins. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ok then I look forward to it, see ya!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bye Ranpo-San.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And with that, Ranpo hangs up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There aren’t a lot of things that confuse Dazai, but this was definitely one of them. He looked questioningly at Ranpo who had a smirk on his face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Now all we need to do is find Charles Baudelaire. Have you ever heard of him?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai frowned. Yes, he had heard of him but he really really </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>didn’t want to go through the process to find him. “Yes, but we’re going to have to make a few more phone calls…” Dazai finally said with a defeated tone and a sigh. If it was for a case, there was no working around it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stood up and left the room, Haruno was sitting at her usual desk and typing away on a computer and he went straight there. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gooood evening Haruno-Chan~” he started, “would you happen to know where the president is right now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked up at him with an apprehensive face. “He went out but he said he’s willing to attend any work related calls. Not anything unnecessary.” There was a lot of emphasis on the word ‘unnecessary’. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Haruno-Chan!” he chirped and returned to the room where Ranpo had moved onto his second lollipop. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He settled back into the chair he was just at earlier and dialed the president who picked up after three rings. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fukuzawa, who is this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s Dazai and Ranpo, I just needed permission for something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have to say, it’s not often that you ask for permission for something, what is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have some guests who turned up under suspicious circumstances, and we have reason to believe that a certain ability user is behind the incident.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see, and?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know a guy who knows the guy, but the guy I know happens to work for the Port Mafia.”’</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo looked at him curiously, with a face that said he had already figured it out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What rank?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Executive.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’ll assume you wanted to make sure I was ok with you talking to a Mafia Executive right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right Fukuzawa-San.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dazai-Kun… is it… ah nevermind. You have my go-ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai was kind of glad that Fukuzawa had decided not to finish that question. He turned to Ranpo who was pouting at his candy bag. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What happened Ranpo-San?” Dazai asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want any more lollipops.. Do we have any more candy?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai walked over to the corner of the room where there was a stash of candy and brought it back to the table where he plopped it down just out of Ranpo’s reach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is there a reason you’re not giving it to me?” Ranpo half whined. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I use your phone for the last call?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s it, right? If you put it on speaker and let me listen.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai frowned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” he finally agreed and pushed the candy bag towards him, and got Ranpo’s phone in exchange. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hoping that he didn’t change his phone number, Dazai dialed it in and put it on speaker. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello? Who is this?” an all too familiar voice asked. Dazai sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s Dazai.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me why I shouldn’t hang up right now you stinky bandage covered asshole?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya’s voice had instantly turned hostile and Dazai had to roll his eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Relax little chibi, it’s work related. Did you really think that I would call you for fun?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai could practically </span>
  <em>
    <span>hear</span>
  </em>
  <span> the look Chuuya was making right now. The one that says ‘oh you better fucking be kidding because there is no way you think I’m taking that seriously.’</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes. You call me all the fucking time as different people. Need me to remind you of the last time you called me and you pretended to be the pizza worker? I still don’t know how the hell you knew I ordered pizza that day.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai snickered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But this is work-related.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it’s work related, you could have had your boss call Mori-Donou. I’m not falling for this shit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No need to swear so much, kids are supposed to be sweet and innocent~”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DAZAIIII!! Tell me what the fuck you want right now before I hang up and block this number too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok ok, I’ll just pretend you don’t miss me. Anyways so-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai heard the tone go flat and realised that Chuuya had hung up on him. Sighing, he dialed again before Chuuya had the chance to block Ranpo’s number too. It’s not like he had much choice now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya had blocked Dazai’s personal, Dazai’s work, Kunikida’s personal, Kunikida’s work, then all Agency lines, Junichirou’s personal and even Atsushi's personal phone number. He could still technically ask for Kyouka’s but he didn’t dare ask Yosano or Fukuzawa. Naomi and Haruno wouldn’t agree to it as they were all too familiar with what Dazai does when he borrows phones seeing as they overlooked most of the calls, being the secretary and all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The phone picked up not even half a ring later. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I actually need help with something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off, I’m not helping you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll tell Kouyou”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai heard Chuuya curse under his breath. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine, what do you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need to talk to your buddy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why didn’t you call them instead of me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you’re the only one whose personal number I have… besides I don’t know the guy personally anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who is it anyways?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Charles Baudelaire.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want with Charles?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh? Very protective of him are we? On first names too…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said, what do you want with Charles shitty Mackerel? I'm actually helping you so take it while you can.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need to talk to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Why?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He caused some trouble for the Agency.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not on purpose he wouldn’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow you’re really close with him aren’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dazai.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Chuuya~”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get on with it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need to contact him.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya finally sighed from the other end of the call. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t have his number.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then how do you guys communicate?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We usually just meet up every now and then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok but </span>
  <em>
    <span>how </span>
  </em>
  <span>Chuuya.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s easier to show you in real life.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai faked a gasp.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve been wanting to meet up with me? Touché, but I’d rather not have to see you in real life.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s no other way though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He…. he leaves notes at a cafe I go to but I’m not going to tell you which cafe or how to… where to find the note. That’s personal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm, your buddy Charles sure is careful about rarely being seen huh? Doesn’t that sound suspicious at all?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He has his reasons.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai frowned. Chuuya seemed close with this guy. How? Why? Since when? And secondly, why didn’t Chuuya find it suspicious how he went to such lengths to make it hard to talk to him. He figured the only way would be to see Chuuya in real life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” Dazai agreed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll meet with you in real life.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok when?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Later today?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you talking about? It’s already 6pm.. You wanna go to a bar or something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I meant like in 10 minutes.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a small pause while Chuuya weighed his options and probably checked if he had any urgent work. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ok, but I can only do an hour from now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Works.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I’ll see you in an hour at the usual café. Oh and are you bringing anyone?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai looked at Ranpo who looked at him with a candy in his mouth before nodding. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ranpo-San is coming.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok see you then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You better be on time instead of the slow slug you are.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Suicidal bastard.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Chuuya hung up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If you thought my call with Poe-Kun was weird, you have no idea what you sound like when you talk to Nakahara.” Ranpo deadpanned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai laughed. “I guess enemy organisations have interesting people,” and Ranpo nodded with a small, fond smile of his own. “In the meanwhile though,” Dazai continued, “why don’t we entertain our guests.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two geniuses stepped out of the room and walked over to the sofa where the four volleyball players were now talking comfortably with Kenji and Yosano, their guards down and body language more relaxed. God, these really were just regular teenagers to be so unsuspecting already. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well well, it would appear you four have gotten nicely settled in… Now, if I do remember correctly, your names are Bokuto… Akaashi… Kenma… and Kuroo.” he said, pointing to each one respectively. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They nodded and seemed quite impressed at how quickly he had learned their names. Did they not realise that they were literally a detective agency? If they couldn’t memorise information as simple as names, they couldn’t possibly call themselves one of the best private detective companies in Yokohama, let alone mediocre detectives. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai and Ranpo took a seat along with Kenji and Yosano so that it could be four and four. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So what were you guys chit-chatting about?” Dazai asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They were asking us about our school and volleyball and teams and stuff,” Kuroo answered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see,” it was Ranpo who spoke up this time, “what do you guys know about where you are right now though?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Basically nothing…” Akaashi admitted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well we know that we’re in Yokohama!” Bokuto chimed in, “Do you think we could travel back to Tokyo though?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah… we have friends and family who would be looking for us, not to mention school and volleyball.” Kuroo answered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys do realise it’s not that simple right?” Yosano asked, and got nods of agreement from Ranpo and Dazai. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” asked Kuroo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is likely a parallel universe,” Kenji explained as though it was the most simple thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooh a parallel universe?” Bokuto sounded amazed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not possible,” Kuroo said easily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That can’t be right,” Akaashi said at the same time as Kuroo. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys don’t have the existence of supernatural abilities in your world do you?” Dazai confirmed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course not,” Bokuto sounded appalled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See?” Yosano said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Supernatural powers can’t and don’t exist,” Kuroo insisted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, how can you prove it to us that they do?” Akaashi agreed with his friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well all of us here are gifted, as in we have supernatural abilities,” Kenji said happily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woahhh you guys have superpowers??” Bokuto asked, amazed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s no way,” Akaashi said plainly, “those don’t exist.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I have super strength when I’m hungry!” Kenji smiled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can heal anyone on the brink of death,” Yosano had a sadistic smirk. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can solve any mystery,” Ranpo sounded as proud as ever. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My ability cancels out other abilities,” Dazai finally explained his own ability. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All of our abilities have names too,” Yosano continued, “mine is Thou Shalt Not Die, Kenji’s is Undefeated by The Rain, Dazai’s is No Longer Human, and Ranpo’s is Ultra Deduction. Kunikida in the back over there, his is Doppo Poet.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo, Akaashi, and Kenma exchanged glances and Bokuto looked at them curiously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That confirms it,” Kuroo said while Akaashi nodded, “there’s something wrong with you guys.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Yosano giggled, “all gifted have something wrong in the head.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not like that…” Akaashi said, “But let me guess, Dazai is suicidal? And has multiple girlfriends?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time it was the Agency member’s turns to exchange glances. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How did you know that?” Dazai asked, completely serious now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll bet if you were American, you would have Scott K. Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Margaret Thatcher, and all the English classics too?” Kenma was finally speaking up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you… you know about the Guild? And what do you mean classics?” even Ranpo was confused at this point. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m still not buying this whole parallel universe and supernatural abilities thing, but at least where we’re from, you guys are all famous authors from the past.” Akaashi said. “I thought your names were familiar from the start but when I heard your ‘ability names’ I realised from where. I’ve had to study most of you for History or Japanese Literature.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Authors..? And our abilities were our books? Wait so are we all dead in your world?” Yosano asked with slight amusement in her voice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The three boys nodded while Bokuto looked amazed. Bokuto really didn’t seem like a very smart or studious type. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But nevertheless, the fact that they were all old dead authors in their world was fascinating news. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What kind of books did I write? Out of curiosity,” Dazai said honestly for once. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wrote rather depressing books. Your most famous one was No Longer Human in which talked about humanity and how you were entirely disqualified from being human. You touched on subjects like social rejects, human flaws, and being numb from feelings via a character, Yozo, who was basically the same as you in terms of personality.” Akaashi explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai thought for a second. This sounded too familiar. “And what of my behaviour outside of my books. You mentioned that I was suicidal and a womaniser, what led you to believe that?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, your cause of death was suicide with your wife. But before that, you had multiple failed attempts of lover’s suicide with other ladies who you weren’t married to.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh...” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai let a smirk make its way onto his face. This could be a truly faster way of gaining information. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If that’s the case, what do you know about Fyodor Dostoevsky?” he asked and perked the attention of the other Agency members. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That Russian guy... he’s really famous, actually more famous than you guys... but I didn’t study him much since he wasn’t Japanese...” Akaashi said, almost sounding sorry he couldn’t help. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I studied him,” Kenma offered. “he was actually the author I focused on for my foreign literature project.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So that explained how Kenma knew the Guild members. Or Guild ‘authors’. He had actually learnt about foreign literature. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“His most memorable and famous book was Crime and Punishment which follows a young man named Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky’s embodiment of evil. His other popular book was The Idiot which follows a young prince named Myshkin, Dostoevsky’s embodiment of pure innocence. He’s one of the more well known authors throughout history for his opposing books which are recognised even today.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai had to say, he was just the tiiiiiniest bit jealous that Dostoevsky was more popular than him in that world of authors. Japanese people must not get enough recognition there since obviously Dazai’s author counterpart had written on much more complicated subjects. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So what about Dostoevsky as a person?” Dazai pushed. This could really get them somewhere.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dostoevsky as a person wasn’t great. He’s been to jail for multiple years and even wrote during his time in jail. He once did an experiment where he wrote two books at once in 6 months, where he would work on one in the morning and one in the evening. He’s willing to experiment and try new things, but he’s also a genius.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai was tempted to yell “yes let’s all celebrate Dostoevsky the fucking rat demon for his genius” but resisted the urge. Instead, he decided to go on a lighter topic, related to their current investigation. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you for that, we have a Dostoevsky in this world too, and he happens to be someone we’re dealing with. There’s one more person I would like to ask about, though this one is partly curiosity and partly because it’s related to how you guys are here. What do you know on Chuuya Nakahara?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time, it was an author Kuroo was familiar with. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Chuuya Nakahara wasn’t actually an author.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wait what? So the little hatrack wasn’t even an author? Dazai couldn’t wait to tell this to Chuuya, he would be so pissed... </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He was one of my favourite poets.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He wrote multiple great poems, of which his most famous were For The Tainted Sorrow and The Bone. I highly suggest reading them, they’re beautiful poems.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, no can do,” Dazai said rolling his eyes, “if I just went and searched for him as a person, I doubt that there would be any results, let alone poems that only exist in your world. Besides, I’m familiar with the guy and he’s nothing special. What was he like as a person in your world though?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He was short, he usually wore hats, drunk often, had a short temper, and... oh yeah he was pretty interested in French Literature. He looked up to authors like Baudelaire and Rimbaud.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So that actually made a lot of sense. Dazai was annoyed that they could have found out about Baudelaire sooner but dropped it as there was nothing he could do about that now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In that case, do you know Baudelaire’s most famous book?” Dazai asked, not about to miss the chance he could have. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Les FLeurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil. It was a book filled with poems but that’s all I know as I didn’t do extensive research on him,” was Kuroo’s answer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, you’ve been a great help to the investigation already.” Dazai said with a happy smile. “Yosano-Sensei, I’m sure you can figure out a deal with them. You know, with their knowledge on ‘authors’ in their world.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Yosano answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Glad you’re so understanding,” Dazai answered brightly. “Ranpo-San, I think it’s time we go meet up with a certain </span>
  <em>
    <span>poet</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ranpo nodded and they both walked out, waving a quick bye to the others. Kunikida’s paperwork could wait, he actually had an investigation to do now.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was their own fault for being 15 minutes early. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai sipped his first coffee while Ranpo finished his third rather large cookie. They had only been at the cafe for 5 minutes yet Ranpo had already finished so much. Dazai couldn’t really understand how Ranpo could be like this, eating so much, but he supposed he could investigate later. It probably was just a fast metabolism anyways. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Just then, the door opened yet again, but when Dazai looked up this time, there was a fedora that was a little too familiar for his liking. The man under the fedora scanned the small crowd, finding them rather quickly and sat down across from them in the small booth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai finally got a good look at Chuuya after a while and cursed in his head. And then out loud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ok who the fuck told you to let your hair grow out. Sorry, </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>sorry, but who the actual hell thought it was a good idea?” was the first thing Dazai said out loud after seeing Chuuya. The last time he had seen the redhead was that time they had to get Q after Guild members Steinbeck and Lovecraft had taken them. Chuuya had been forced to use Corruption back then, and it had been a huge reminder of what</span>
  <em>
    <span> the Double Black</span>
  </em>
  <span> could be when they actually worked together. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But fuck if Chuuya didn’t look good in long hair under a hat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And it’s not just your hair, you just can’t get rid of that stupid fedora can you??” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya looked at him incredulously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“At least I don’t think that </span>
  <em>
    <span>bandage rolls</span>
  </em>
  <span> are good fashion. And you actually had a decent coat back then, what the fuck is this beige nonsense you wear now?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok for the record, you know why. You fucking know Chuuya, why I wear them.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The beige coat, Chuuya knew how much Oda had meant to Dazai, someone who had truly understood him and cared for him. Another person who just happened to wear a beige coat. As for the bandages, of course Chuuya had seen the cut marks under them. That was how they worked so well as partners back then, they knew almost everything about each other and trusted each other. But to use that information against each other now, it was petty. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya smirked. Oh yeah, did Dazai mention how hot Chuuya’s smirks were?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course I know,” he said smugly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“God, I really can’t stand the sight of you. Even your smile has pointy shark teeth. You don’t even look </span>
  <em>
    <span>human</span>
  </em>
  <span>...” Dazai said, pushing the limit between harmless jokes and actually offending him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya shot up, grabbed him by the collar, and brought them face to face. “You say that again you shitty little son of a bitch.” His voice was low and half a whisper. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then don’t mention things you already know.” Dazai countered, voice just as low and threatening. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya let go and they both sat down again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh hello?? You two realise that I’m still here right?” Ranpo whined, waving his hand in front of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two of them turned towards him and Dazai gave him a smile. “Of course Ranpo-San, shall we start the investigation then?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two detectives faced the Port Mafia executive again who was giving them dirty looks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine, just wait a few minutes. You were early.” Chuuya sounded resigned, a sound Dazai always felt proud of if he had been the one to cause it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In any case, they waited. A few people left and entered in the time that passed. Dazai checked the time as he made small talk with Ranpo, ignoring Chuuya. 6:58. They were waiting for 7pm right? As Dazai continued talking, Chuuya just listened since no one was including him, and about 2 minutes later, Chuuya stood up and walked towards the door. Or no- not to the door but to someone who had just walked in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a male of decent height, a clean shaved face, hazel eyes, and wavy blond hair that fell in a perfectly messy way around his face, just reaching his jaw. He was wearing casual clothing, with a sweater that seemed just one size too big and ripped jeans. The guy was foreign, that was for sure. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As the detectives watched, Chuuya hugged him and said something in a low voice before gesturing to where Dazai and Ranpo were watching. He looked annoyed for a second until Chuuya whispered something else and he brought his face into a smile. Striding over to them, the blond shook Dazai’s hand before holding one out to Ranpo, who just looked at him apprehensively. Dazai faked a laugh and caught his attention again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He doesn’t do handshakes,” he explained and he nodded his head slightly warily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Charles Baudelaire, nice to meet you.” His voice was just a bit lower than Dazai’s and he had a slight accent on his Japanese. Just where the fuck did Chuuya find him anyways? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Osamu Dazai, the pleasure is mine.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ranpo Edogawa.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Chuuya looked at the three of them with curiosity. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m staying here for the investigation,” Chuuya said blankly. He seemed oddly protective of Baudelaire. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In any case, Dazai just shrugged and they all took their seats, with Dazai and Ranpo sitting across from Chuuya and Baudelaire. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So I heard I could help with your investigation?” Baudelaire started. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai nodded enthusiastically, “You see, my friend and I are private detectives, and earlier today, we found 4 young teenagers in the cafe downstairs. Thanks to Ranpo-San here’s contacts, we were able to find you.’</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah, so you want to know about the experiment?” Baudelaire asked in his French accent. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Experiment?” Ranpo spoke up and the blond nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a guy I work with who has a very interesting ability. All of you know Poe, but I don’t know if you know that I translate his books to French. Yes yes.. he has a pretty big group of French-speaking supporters.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai and Ranpo nodded… he was starting to be able to piece it together in his head. Kuroo hadn’t mentioned anything about Baudelaire and Poe being connected, although he did mention that Baudelaire’s most famous book was The Flowers of Evil. Thanks to the event with Oda and Mimic, Dazai knew very well that abilities could create new effects when combined with others. All Dazai needed to finish this puzzle was what The Flowers of Evil actually did and how it worked. He figured the easiest way would be to shock him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ranpo-San, if I may…” Ranpo nodded and leaned back in his chair, probably already knowing what Dazai wanted to do. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then Baudelaire, you should know we did our homework before coming here. What does the Flowers of Evil do?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Baudelaire’s jaw actually dropped before he composed himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No one but Chuuya knew that information, how did you come across it? It’s not like Poe didn’t know how it works but even he did not know it’s name.” His voice was calm again but there was no mistaking the curiosity and surprise in there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We found another source of information. One that wasn’t here earlier,” Dazai offered vaguely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So it was those teenagers…” Baudelaire realised. So he wasn’t too slow, that was good to know. “What does their world have to do with ours though?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Funny story actually,” Dazai said with amusement, “us ability users are great old authors in their world and our most famous books are our abilities right now.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Baudelaire was satisfyingly surprised. “Well this is new, but that explains it.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai smiled, this was actually easier than he originally anticipated. Baudelaire was an easy going guy, and pretty laid back too. He still wanted to know why he was so secretive about himself but the case came first. Before he continued though, he decided to check on Chuuya. He glanced over at his former partner who was leaning slightly forward and listening raptly. Dazai hadn’t missed how Baudelaire had mentioned that Chuuya was the only one who knew about his ability name and that even when he said that, he didn’t suspect Chuuya of leaking information to Dazai and Ranpo. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Based off of what Dazai had heard from both Baudelaire and Poe, he had come to a few conclusions. First of all, Baudelaire might not have known him and Ranpo by face, but he had certainly heard about them from Chuuya and Poe. However outside of Poe and Chuuya, it was unlikely that there were many people who knew about him personally. It seemed as though the one he trusted most was Chuuya so it would be important to have Chuuya willing to cooperate, but from the way the two of them talked, they were a lot closer than they let on. As for Poe, his relationship with Baudelaire was probably a lot more formal as they knew each other through business. Baudelaire knowing Ranpo wasn’t the least bit surprising if you knew that he worked with Poe and therefore talked with him often. Baudelaire knowing Dazai also was understandable considering that he had known Chuuya since Chuuya and Dazai were 17. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Back in his days with the Port Mafia, Dazai would annoy Chuuya as much as wanted. Pestering him, pranking him, and generally just making his life a lot harder than it had to be. But when they were 17, Chuuya had taken on a solo mission, after which he started spending a considerable chunk of his time with Baudelaire. Dazai hadn’t been the least bit interested in him back then as it was around the time he had been promoted to executive with a much larger workload, and it was also when he had started going to the bar Lupin with Oda and Ango. But now that Dazai thought about it, why had Baudelaire been so friendly with Chuuya since such a long time ago? He seemed to be the type to give aliases and fake backstories to everyone. It would have made more sense if he had only revealed his real name to Chuuya recently, after years of knowing him and building trust. Yet Dazai remembered Chuuya talking about his real name since when he had first met him. This called for a questioning with Chuuya too. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Knowing Ranpo, he had probably figured out as much as Dazai. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai had known about Baudelaire’s existence before the case, and Ranpo had seen how he only knew him because of Chuuya. If the last time that Dazai had casually talked to Chuuya as friends and not enemies had been when he was in the Port Mafia, Ranpo should have come to the conclusion that Chuuya had known Baudelaire’s real name for about 4-7 years. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Flowers of Evil is kind of complicated but it all comes down to this, if there is a real flower in an ability space, I can manipulate that space.” Baudelaire finally said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Manipulate how?” Ranpo asked, it was refreshing to have Ranpo on the same page as him instead of figuring out the entire case before they even worked their way through half of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can change physical aspects like temperature, placements, settings, and the such. I can also change everyone’s perception of that space as I want without changing the literal, physical parts of it. Manipulate all 5 senses of the people within the ability space, and who is in the space. The only thing I can’t control is what a person thinks and who they are originally. That and I can’t change people’s physical appearances.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see…” Dazai said. “So what did you do to enter a parallel universe?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well you know how Poe’s ability is to transport the reader or readers to the setting of the book? Well we decided to do an experiment where he wrote the setting as a world where abilities don’t exist, with the reader being me. Usually, a mystery book has a setting that is a figment of the author’s imagination. But when we made the setting a variable of sorts, of any place that doesn’t have abilities, it sort of messed with Poe’s power. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As for what I had to solve, I had to solve the mystery of where was the first human being that appeared in front of my eyes when I was transported into the book. A rather plain mystery that would be easy to solve. I ended up in Tokyo in the storage room of a volleyball court. I walked out to find four high school boys practicing amongst themselves. I snuck out using my ability to hide myself, easily walking out. Then I just explored for a while until they were done and waited for a while before realising that they all went to the same house which was convenient for me. But then I wanted to see if I could bring them back with me and apparently I could.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Baudelaire finished and flashed them a smile. “You should know as much as you need now, and everything I said was true. If that’s all, Chuuya-San and I will head out. If you want, of course?” The question was aimed at Chuuya who smiled at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes. Dazai, Ranpo-San, we’ll be leaving. I hope I never see you again shitty bandage waster.” Chuuya said coldly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With that, the two of them stood and sidestepped away from the table. Baudelaire offered his hand to Dazai again who took it with a fake smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s all for now, but I’ll contact Chuuya if there’s anything else. Thank you for coming at such a late time too.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two detectives stood up next, over half of Dazai’s coffee still sat there. Well well, wasn’t that a rather interesting meeting. The two brunettes waited for the other two to leave first before Ranpo spoke up. “I’ll call Poe again to tell him we were able to contact Baudelaire. I think you’ll want to have a chat with Nakahara though,” and he fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>smirked. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Damn. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After Dazai paid, the two of them headed back to the agency mainly in silence, Ranpo occasionally stopping for something colourful or tasty that caught his eye. As they were reaching back, it was getting really dark and Dazai expected Kunikida to be the only person still there. Much to his surprise, Yosano and Kenji were still there as well as Atsushi who was apparently done with his investigations for the day. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Dazai-San! Ranpo-San!” Atsushi exclaimed when they came back and the two of them grinned at their fellow detectives. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then there were the guests of honour. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo, Kenma, Akaashi, and Bokuto were still here. Of course, where would they go anyways? The president seemed to be busy and wasn’t coming back until the end of the week so they would just have to figure out a place themselves. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After getting caught up on what Dazai and Ranpo had missed, which wasn’t much, Ranpo finally addressed the issue of where the four of them would stay. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right so, most of us live in dorms, is anyone here actually rich? Kunikida? Any spare money?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai raced through ideas in his head, quickly checking if they were realistic solutions. “Hmm.. pool some money and rent a place, or they can sleep here in the agency,” He said after a few seconds and saw that the others had come to the same conclusion. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“However unless you are willing to spend your extra savings on a burden for the Agency, letting them sleep here for tonight seems like a better option.” Kunikida was flipping through the pages in his book of ideals, probably looking through his finances. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey that’s not fair now,” Atsushi argued, “when I joined, I got food and got to sleep in the Agency dorms.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was different. Dazai-Kun already expected you to join by then, and we actually had space in an empty dorm. When Kyouka-Chan joined, why do you think she ended up sharing a place with you? There are no more empty dorms.”’</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kunikida sounded like he was frustratedly explaining advanced math to a class of 7 year olds but to him it was the easiest thing in the world. In fact... Kunikida had probably done that considering he was a math teacher before. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes but we have to figure out a good option for them that they’re happy with. We should ask them,” Atsushi said with a tone of finality. As always, it was weretiger who was making the morally correct decision. Honestly, Dazai wouldn’t care any more or less if they decided to let them sleep on the streets. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In any case, everyone agreed with Atushi and went over to ask the volleyball players. Bokuto answered first. “Well I wouldn’t mind sleeping here if it was with Akaashi!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Akaashi thought it over from what Dazai could tell from his expressions. Only a few seconds later, he looked up again. “I think that we’ll stay here tonight but I believe you can rent dorms so would it be possible for us to do that tomorrow until we figure out how to go back? Until then, we’ll work out a way to pay you back.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hmm, it made sense but as for how long they were going to stay here, that was harder to answer. Dazai decided it would be best not to tell the other Agency members about the information on Baudelaire and Poe. Hopefully Ranpo agreed because these guys could really help the agency. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Actually, I would like to add something,” Dazai started, “Yosano-Sensei, did you write that contract?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes I did actually,” the doctor answered with a pleasant expression and pulled some papers from her desk which was only a few feet away from where she was standing. “Here,” she said as she passed them to Dazai who took them and skimmed through the contents. It looked reasonable. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright then,” Dazai said happily, “We have reason to believe that when you do go back, it will be at the same time as when you left so we would like to make a deal. Until we figure out how to take you back, we will give you a place to stay and pay for your necessities if you agree to trade information.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dazai got looks of surprise from almost everyone in the room. “How did you find out that they will be returned at the same time?” Kunikida asked suspiciously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah no need to worry, I didn’t do some underhand deal with the mafia or something. Ranpo-San and I did some investigating,” Dazai said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The mafia?” Kuroo asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yes, there is something important you should know,” Dazai said with his tone getting serious. “The Port Mafia is pretty infamous here for those of us who are aware of the underworld. As long as you are under the Agency’s protection, you don’t need to worry about them but with that being said, you should know better than to purposely seek them out and cause trouble.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The four of them looked scared. Not terrified, but they were high schoolers. Of course they wouldn’t be used to organised crime up close. Studying something and experiencing it are two very different things. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Anyways,” Dazai’s cheerful voice was back, “do you guys agree to the terms of the contract?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But… we’re all underage. Shouldn’t we need our parents or legal guardians to sign this?” Kuroo asked reasonably. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… we’re not sure if you exist or if your parents exist in this world as that would take some investigating but it’s like Schrodinger’s cat. Until we confirm it’s existence, it’s as good as non-existent, so you guys are good to sign these yourselves. Also what did you think would happen if we found your alternate parents in this world? They would believe us if we told them that we found their alternate kids from another world and got them here so that they can sign a contract allowing their other child to work with a detective agency in exchange for information about authors that don’t exist in this world?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The four boys looked at Dazai. Bokuto looked genuinely confused, Akaashi had a worried expression, Kuroo looked as though he were deep in thought, Kenma had his usual blank look but Dazai could tell that he was also thinking it through thanks to his fidgety hands and how he had stopped paying the same amount of information to everyone’s actions. Dazai had noticed that while Kenma was definitely the quietest of the four, he was also the most observant. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His cat-like eyes were constantly darting around and keeping careful watch of what everyone was doing, critically observing as much as he could, focusing on people’s body language and behaviour. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On the other hand, Akaashi was the one with the reasoning, checking cause and effect, taking into account circumstances, finding consequences, running scenarios, and finding the best course of action. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo was more of an experimental person and looked after others. He knew a lot of information before-hand which allowed him some extra space to try what he wanted and find results via experimentation and trial and error. On top of that, he was also good with people and seemed to like taking care of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bokuto was… a wild one. His ridiculously contradicting appearance had bright and energetic yellow eyes hiding beneath half lidded and tired eyelids, bright, spiky and wild hair that stuck up like an owl’s head, a confusingly expressive face that showed off all of his emotions and thoughts with extreme detail, and an odd soft spot for his friends. He had an air about him that was innocent but knowing, and he definitely had a way with people that made his friends attached to him for seemingly no reason. Oh, and he was loud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The group of four odd high schoolers took the papers reluctantly and signed it. Bokuto didn’t look like he understood everything Dazai had said but knowing that his friends decided that was the best thing to do had seemed to convince him. Dazai was satisfied, they had gotten a good source of information. The main risk in this was how well they had studied the authors and how good of students they were. While they were all volleyball players, at least Kuroo seemed nerdy and Akaashi as though he got good grades. Kenma… well it was hard to tell what he was into if anything and there was no chance Bokuto knew anything helpful about literary figures. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The other risk Dazai was taking was the time thing. While he said that they could be returned to the same time they left, he actually wasn’t sure. While Baudelaire had said that he could manipulate the setting, that could just mean making it dark or bright or changing the clocks in an ability space. Since this wasn’t an ability space exactly, it would probably have different rules, advantages, and disadvantages. Baudelaire could of course control the perception of that world from everyone’s point of vue to make them think it was back in that time that the four had disappeared but that wasn’t a practical solution because he would have to do that for everyone in Japan if not the whole world and keep that up for as long as possible which just wouldn’t work. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For now though, he could relax and get to know these guys who seemed nice enough to be able to get friendly with. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Good and Bad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kuroo gets pissed at the ADA's shady morals</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so I think that at some point I did say that I was going to update every Thursday and then when Thursday did come, guess what actually didn't happen!! haha..ha...</p><p>uh anyways so the day's been changed to Sunday because 1, shit's happening and now I'm busy on Thursdays, and 2, Thursday is such a random day anyways like what was I thinking??</p><p>the really stupid thing though is that I had this so chapter prewritten so all I had to do was do the final revision and then post it but no. I was thinking about it on the day of and went, 'but that's effort' and so it just ended up not happening. and anyways I was like who's gonna read my shitty story when there are so many haikyuu stans and i'm out here calling bsd the superior fandom so... </p><p>anyways that doesn't really matter. this chapter is from kuroo's pov about the ADA's morals and how a lot of them are criminals and stuff because i always thought that was pretty funny. this chapter basically only happened though because i figured i should do something from a haikyuu character's perspective though.. ah well, here it is</p><p>(line without a hook starts playing and i wonder when the last time i cried was)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Kuroo rubbed his eyes as he decided whether or not he wanted to be awake at this cursable hour. Then he remembered where he was and the events from yesterday which caused him to shoot up into a sitting position immediately. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Where’s Kenma? </span>
  </em>
  <span>That was his first thought. He looked around at the dorm that he and Kenma were sharing for as long as they were staying in this alternate world. Much to his relief, he saw Kenma sitting in a dark corner with a phone in his hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kenma..?” he asked and heard how much his voice was still muffled from sleep. “What’re you doing? Who’s phone is that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kenma looked up at him with wide, cat-like eyes before speaking up. “There was a guy already at the Agency, I couldn’t sleep at all last night so I went there earlier in the morning and talked to a guy there.” Kuroo nodded and yawned as he picked himself up off the futon. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This had to be one of the strangest and most surreal situations he’d ever been in. Supernatural abilities? Mafia? It didn’t make much sense. But if anything, he knew that it must be as hard if not harder for the others than him. He had decided yesterday that he would be the calm one for Kenma and the one that they could rely on to stay calm. In their team in Nekoma, it was Kenma who was more who devised the strategies and decided the course of action despite Kuroo being the captain. But Kuroo knew how much Kenma hated socialising with people and how he didn’t like to be thrown into hard places suddenly and how much it threw him off. Akaashi was of course incredibly helpful, keeping them all in check yesterday and most importantly, helping Bokuto get through all of this. If it weren’t for Akaashi, Bokuto would have suffered multiple breakdowns and god knows what else. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo stretched out his limbs as he made his way over to the washroom. He found a change of clothes for him that were kind of surprising. There was a pair of black ripped jeans, a white t-shirt, and an overly large sweater that looked half-poncho. There was also a track sweater which seemed to be an alternative for the giant black cloth that looked like a curtain had been stitched into something wearable. Yeah he was gonna stick with the track sweater thank you very much. He opened the door and threw the black sweater on the bed and closed the door again to take a quick shower. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>About 15 minutes later, he came out again and slipped into the change of outfit, rolling up the sleeves to the track suit to his elbows. He stepped out again and noticed that Kenma was in fact wearing a change of clothes. He had an oversized white hoodie with sleeves that he also rolled up to his elbows and capris that were a little below his knees. Huh, so they had given them casual clothes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You coming?” He asked Kenma who nodded and stood up, finally averting his eyes from the phone. Slipping his hand into Kenma’s by habit, the two of them made it to the Agency in about 5 minutes. When they did get there, Kenma had been against having to interact with the detective again which Kuroo didn’t hold against him but at least asked him for where he was. Kenma pointed at a closed door and sat himself on the sofa, waiting for Kuroo to be done. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Slowly, he opened the door to find a meeting room of sorts with a white board at the far end and a long table that ran the length of the room, surrounded by chairs. At one of the chairs, sat the man with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and a beige suit vest and pants under a black dress shirt. The man was scribbling away in a tiny notebook with Japanese letters on the cover that Kuroo couldn’t exactly make out from the distance. Slightly at a loss for what to do especially since he had forgotten his name, Kuroo settled on just knocking on the door. The blond looked up from his book and let his face relax a bit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come in,” he said, “have a seat.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo did as he was told and sat across from the detective on the other side of the table. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you writing?” Kuroo asked out of curiosity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is my book of ideals, everything I stand for and believe in.” he said proudly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everything?” Kuroo asked, he couldn’t imagine his entire life in a little notebook. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Everything from my minute by minute breakdown of the day to what I plan on doing in 10 years. Things that are timeless like morals I live by and the characteristics of my wife.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo nearly choked and played it off as a cough. He had been caught by surprise at ‘wife’. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you ok?” he asked and Kuroo nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what’s your ability?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doppo Poet, anything I write in this notebook and rip out that is the size of it or smaller will materialise.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ah so this was Kunikida Doppo. Kuroo still couldn’t believe he was in a world of supernatural abilities or ‘gifts’ but the thought of getting to meet all these authors that he had read about was something that had never been possible. For sure these guys looked nothing like the authors in their original world but their personalities were incredibly similar and they even had connections with the same authors. Kuroo had always been one for chemistry and science in general but it wasn’t like he couldn’t appreciate literature and poetry, reading some of the author’s other works outside of school out of pure curiosity. That being said, his favourite had to be Chuuya Nakahara. The man might have been a drunkard who constantly picked fights but he sure could write poems. However, by the way Dazai talked about him, he said he was ‘nothing special’. He knew him personally, that was something Kuroo would have to ask him about later. In fact, he could probably ask Kunikida. He didn’t want to pass up this chance to meet the ‘gifted’ version of Nakahara. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I guess that must come in handy in fights.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm yes it does, however you can never rely entirely on your ability. You must also enhance your natural strengths and abilities so as to not be too vulnerable if you were facing an opponent like say… Dazai.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo nodded, he had to be careful with this one before he got some weird-ass lecture. He was already getting a lot more information that he neither wanted nor needed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So… about Dazai…” he started. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t ask about his bandages, no one knows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh not that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well we don’t know why he’s suicidal either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh… I wasn’t asking about that either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright then what is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He knows Chuuya Nakahara personally?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha personally? The two of them hate each other. I don’t know much about their relationship exactly, in fact I was one of the last people to find out that they knew each other thanks to Dazai’s past and I’m still not sure why.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kunikida had a look of annoyance at his face and Kuroo just looked at him in slight confusion. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well what was his past?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He used to work for the Port Mafia.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And this is connected to Nakahara, how?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nakahara is a Port Mafia Executive, as in one of the top five most powerful in the Mafia.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo stopped for a second and took that in. Dazai was in the Port Mafia before joining the Armed Detective Agency. Chuuya was one of the top 5 most powerful members of one of the most dangerous criminal organisations in this city. Dazai and Chuuya knew each other because Dazai was Mafia. Dazai and Chuuya hate each other. What..? Wasn’t Dazai warning them just yesterday about the Port Mafia being extremely dangerous? And the person he looked up to was a bad guy?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see uh… did you give Kenma that phone?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh that… yeah he asked if there were any electronic devices he could use so I just gave him one of the extra phones from the electronic collection.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh I see,” Kuroo said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Where were the other detectives anyways? Kuroo wasn’t interested in talking with Kunikida much. He might be a good man with good morals and all but he wasn’t the type of guy that Kuroo would just hang out with for fun. Besides, the guy was straight, wanting to marry some ideal girl. Who knows whether dating the same gender fell under his vision of a ‘perfect ideal’. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think I’ll leave you to your work then and head out, my uh… Kenma is waiting.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kunikida nodded, going back to writing in his pocket book. Geez, the guy sure loved that book. Kuroo stood up and left, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him. When he came back out, he found Kenma struggling to get out of a conversation with the detective Atsushi Nakajima. Kuroo smirked to himself as he made his way over to the sofa, to help out Kenma. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello Nakajima-Kun,” he greeted happily and got a smile in return. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning Kuroo-Kun! I see you two have taken the clothes we offered. We hope you like them!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We like them, thank you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nakajima smiled again warmly before moving to his desk where he picked up a laptop. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I was out for most of yesterday, doing some work for the military so I just have to file it in today. We have a great cafe downstairs though and my good friend works there so why don’t we all get some breakfast from there?” the white haired teenager said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure that sounds great! I just realised how much I’m starving. Kenma, you’re coming right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Kenma said quietly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so the three of them made their way down four flights of stairs, deciding to ignore the elevator and back to the cafe where Kuroo and his friends had woken up yesterday. Speaking of which, were Akaashi and Bokuto really sleeping still? They had agreed to meet back at the Agency in the morning so Kuroo had decided to leave a note for them that they were in the cafe. When they got down though, they were surprised to find that Akaashi and Bokuto were already there, happily chatting away with a girl in thick red braids and a poofy dress. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Lucy-Chan!” Nakajima called out as Kuroo called out “Bokuto!!”’ </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All three of them turned to look at them, faces melting into smiles. Hurrying over, Kuroo pulling Kenma, all five of them met up and Kuroo fist bumped Bokuto. Akaashi smiled and waved while Atsushi stopped awkwardly as did Lucy. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A- Atsushi-Kun, I see you’ve brought… guests.” The red haired girl said awkwardly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh yeah… these are the newest people helping the Agency. They’re not members, just helping us out.” Atsushi was just as awkward. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nakajima held out his hand timidly, which Lucy hesitantly took, ending in the single most embarrassing and unsure handshake Kuroo had ever witnessed. This was Nakajima’s ‘good friend’? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All of you sit down,” Lucy said suddenly, “I'll get your orders in just a second.” Her voice was confident now and had the slightest tone of almost impatience in it. Following what Lucy had instructed them to do, Kuroo and Kenma joined Akaashi and Bokuto in a booth, with two on either side and Atsushi going up to the counter to talk to the other staff and Lucy again. Strange people. However Yosano </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> mention yesterday that all gifted had something wrong with them, and Kuroo was interested to test that out and find out what was wrong with everyone in the Agency. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>About 5 minutes later, Atsushi and Lucy were back at the table, Lucy taking their orders. Kuroo wanted something healthy but he also needed an energy boost, he decided to go for black coffee and a croissant, and he ordered the same for Kenma but with a lot of sugar in the coffee. He knew that it wasn’t exactly ‘healthy’ but hey, this was a cafe, and there wasn’t a huge chance that they would be playing too much volleyball soon. Atsushi on the other hand decided to give them some time to themselves and sat by himself in a different booth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, I thought we were going to meet up in the Agency?” Kuroo asked the Fukurodani members and Akaashi shrugged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bokuto was up wayy too early and woke me up too so we went and explored the Agency though it was empty,” Akaashi explained. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was Kunikida there?” Kuroo asked out of curiosity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We were there for a while but Kunikida showed up at exactly 7am,” Akaashi answered again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh I see.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He gave me a phone,” Kenma offered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have a phone on you?” Bokuto finally spoke up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kenma nodded as he pulled the smartphone from his pocket. At least Kenma could talk slightly comfortably when it was just between the four of them. Kenma slid the device onto the table and it was picked up by Akaashi who opened it seeing as there was no password. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you think would happen if we called our phone numbers from home?” Bokuto asked suddenly and Kuroo had to admit that it was a good idea. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think we should try it now or later, with the Agency detectives?” Akaashi asked reasonably. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think later with the detectives, afterall, they’re the ones with the special abilities and experience with things like this,” Kenma replied. Honestly, it was sometimes very entertaining to watch Kenma and Akaashi reason with each other, both of them being smart, but their thought processes different. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why can’t we just try it ourselves though? There can’t be much harm in a phone call,” well Bokuto’s reasoning was still Kuroo’s favourite. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What if something bad happens?” Akaashi asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like what?” Bokuto countered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well we don’t know much about abilities so we couldn’t say,” Akaashi sounded slightly defeated. Kuroo could feel his frustration though, of something you don’t know but desperately want to find more about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ohhh, good point Akaashi,” Bokuto finally agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Just then, Lucy gave them their coffee and croissants as Atsushi got a phone call from two booths down. Kuroo knew it was bad manners but the four of them decided to listen in as Lucy walked back to the kitchen. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Huh? What do you want? Why are you calling me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why me though? I thought that Dazai was the more experienced one?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is sounding very fake, and how did you get this number anyways?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I understand all that but that doesn’t make it any easier to believe.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane-San? You mean Kouyou-Sama?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure it wasn’t Chuuya-San?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok but how did you get this number?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is there a job? Our mutual ceasefire is still in place so we technically can still work together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean no?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is sounding very much like Chuuya-San.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Whatever you say Aku.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not? You call me Jinko.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright then.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok well bye then.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nakajima hung up and Kuroo turned to watch what he did next. He made his way over to a girl near the door who had been standing on guard ever since she had walked in towards the end of the phone call. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Was that Akutagawa?” she asked with a soft voice. She had long raven hair that was tied into two pigtails, a traditional Japanese dress that was bright red, and an old cellphone with a bunny charm tied to a necklace around her neck. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nakajima frowned. “Yeah that was him.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did he want?” Her voice was very hostile and sounded protective even. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some sort of prank that Kouyou-Sama put him up to but it sounded a lot like Chuuya-San if you ask me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of prank?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just asking us to work together and the such.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then it was probably both Ane-- Kouyou and Chuuya-San.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you say so, also these are our guests.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nakajima suddenly whirled around to gesture towards their table. The two of them walked over and Kuroo gave them a smile, as did Bokuto and Akaashi while Kenma gave a small nod. He really was like a little kitten sometimes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everyone, this is my good friend Kyouka-Chan. Kyouka-Chan, this is Kuroo-Kun, Kenma-Kun, Akaashi-Kun, and Bokuto-Kun.” He gestured to each of them respectively and Kuroo couldn’t help but feel as though it were kind of weird hearing his name with an honorific. The only one out of the four of them to use honorifics was Akaashi, who called Bokuto “Bokuto-San”. Occasionally, one of them might have called Akaashi “Akaashi-Kun” but they generally didn’t use honorifics amongst themselves. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hello Kyouka-Chan!” Bokuto greeted happily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice to meet you,” Akaashi said with a small smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Kenma said smally. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s shy but happy to meet you all the same,” Kuroo explained in his place. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello everyone. I’m Kyouka Izumi, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It honestly looked to Kuroo as if meeting them was far from a ‘pleasure’ from how Kyouka looked bored and uninterested but at least she was being polite. Nakajima on the other hand looked satisfied with himself. “Would you like to join me for coffee Kyouka-Chan? I was waiting for you actually,” he said with a smile and Kyouka just nodded, walking over to the booth behind Kuroo and Kenma.The red haired waitress showed up again and wrinkled her nose. “What do you guys want?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Black coffee.” Kyouka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll have coffee with milk and sugar, thank you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok…” Lucy walked back to the kitchen, her face still disgusted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo on the other hand had questions. First of all, who was Kyouka? She looked younger than all four of them, was she a detective? A family member of Nakajima? Kuroo couldn’t see much resemblance but maybe they weren’t blood related. Also, the girl looked 15 and drinking black coffee which didn’t really make much sense. Secondly, who was Aku or whatever his name was that Nakajima was on the phone with? Both Nakajima and Kyouka seemed familiar with the person but in an odd frenemy sort of way. As in they were definitely hostile towards him but Atsushi seemed pretty relaxed and maybe even familiar. Afterall, the person was playing a prank on him. Thirdly, they had mentioned Chuuya a couple times. Chuuya wasn’t exactly a common first name so they were probably talking about Nakahara but since when was a Port Mafia executive someone who they could think of as the person who set someone up to prank a detective? Wasn’t an executive of the Mafia someone who was in their top 5? Why would such a person be playing pranks on a detective agency? And fourthly, who is Kouyou? Obviously it was Kouyou Ozaki, author of Golden Demon, but was she a Port Mafia member too? They seemed to put Nakahara and Kouyou in the same category so it was likely that they both were mafia but it was still incredibly strange. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo wanted answers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo stood up and nodded once to reassure Kenma that he wasn’t leaving. If anything, he knew that Kenma would feel safer with Akaashi and Bokuto without Kuroo than with Nakajima and Kyouka with Kuroo. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The middle blocker slid into their booth and gave them a small smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry to interrupt Nakajima-Kun, Kyouka-Chan, I just had a few questions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, ask away, but please call me Atushi, no one calls me Nakajima.” the white haired detective answered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, alright then. Well I couldn’t help but overhear that you mentioned Chuuya Nakahara a few times when you were on your call. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I caught his name.” Kuroo tried to make sure it wasn’t too obvious what he had been doing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want with Port Mafia members?” Kyouka asked suspiciously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh it’s fine Kyouka-Chan, this is the one who is a fan of Chuuya-San as a poet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll see…” she didn’t seem to let her guard down very easily huh?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I asked Kunikida-San earlier today about him and he said that he’s a Port Mafia executive, one of the top 5 most powerful in the Mafia?” Kuroo asked for confirmation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right,” Atushi said calmly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And Dazai-San previously worked in the Port Mafia?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha worked? He was the youngest Executive in Port Mafia history, and before that he was right under Mori’s wing as his apprentice. My mentor in the Mafia couldn’t help but gush on about him at every given chance.” Kyouka rolled her eyes as she remembered unpleasant memories. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Woah woah woah what? Dazai-San the youngest executive? Under Mori’s wing like Mori Ougai? Who was Mori to the Mafia? Also Kyouka’s mentor in the Mafia? You mean this 15 year old is ex-Mafia?? And who was her mentor?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, you’re gonna have to slow down,” Kuroo said confused. “First of all, is this Mori Ougai you’re talking about? Vita Sexualis?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kyouka nodded. “I never knew his ability name but that’s him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And you’re ex-Mafia??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, and then Atsushi decided to replace my old mentor and helped me join the Agency.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But aren’t you too young? You look like you’re 15.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am 14 years old, and 14 is nowhere near too young to become a Port Mafia assassin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Assassin?!? You’ve killed people???”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“33 people. But I’ve stopped since joining the Agency.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo was talking to a </span>
  <b>
    <em>killer</em>
  </b>
  <span>?!!? He stood up in a hurry, accidentally hitting his legs on the table. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong Kuroo?” Bokuto asked from the other table. Kenma turned around too and looked at him questioningly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I uh… nothing.” he said and hoped that his expression told them that he would explain later without making it obvious to Atsushi and Kyouka. With that, he sat down again and looked at them seriously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m wanted for murder which is why the Agency is safe for me.” Kyouka said simply. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… uh who was your mentor?” Kuroo asked, trying to change the topic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Technically it was Akutagawa but Kouyou took care of me too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Akutagawa was a mafioso too??</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh.. I’m sorry but you just got a call from him didn’t you?” Kuroo asked, confusion spilling from his voice and expression but not caring. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Atsushi laughed. He laughed? He laughed… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know Dazai-San was warning you yesterday about the Mafia which of course he should do because they are all incredibly dangerous and the darkness of this city made incarnate, </span>
  <em>
    <span>however. </span>
  </em>
  <span>They’re not all bad people and the Agency is pretty well-versed with them despite how many times we’ve faced off. They’ve tried raids on us, we get rid of them easily, but in the end, we can work together when needed.” Atsushi finished with a smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hang on, I’m gonna need you to backtrack. You said that they are the darkness of the city made incarnate but they’re not bad people? How does that even work? Aren’t most of them murderers?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well it’s true that all of them are murderers but it’s not like that takes away from the fact that they’re human,” Atsushi said calmly, “we have our fair share of criminals for a detective agency too you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do???”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I’m a wanted tiger for causing destruction in my tiger form before I could control it. I’m not entirely sure but there are rumours that our President is also a former assassin. Dazai-San… well I couldn’t say much seeing as Kyouka would know better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too many to count.” Kyouka said casually. “Should the Special Abilities Division get their hands on him, they’ll be sending him to that max security gifted prison that I know even Dazai would have trouble escaping from.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That many?” Atsushi asked, slightly amused. “Well so then him too. And Kunikida-San has caused his fair share of casualties on a job, though never on purpose and he feels bad for them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Y- you’re all messed up in the head. There’s something wrong with this Agency,” Kuroo declared as he stood up. He cursed at how his voice had faltered but it was for good reason. He was talking to two teenagers wanted by the government, and one of them had killed 33 people and was an ex-assassin. If that wasn’t the biggest red flag there ever was… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo made his way over to Kenma and the others and looked at them seriously. “Let’s go upstairs.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oooo-kay?” Kenma said unsure while Akaashi nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is something up with you bro?” Bokuto asked and Kuroo just gave him a sad look. There was seriously something wrong with gifted people. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The four of them made their way up to the Agency headquarters where Kuroo threw open the doors. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is there any way to cancel out what we signed in the contracts? I would like to dissociate with the Armed Detective Agency.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah woah, slow down.” Kunikida said. “What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah what happened Kuroo?” Bokuto asked from behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Atsushi-Kun and Kyouka-Chan informed me that the two of them are wanted by the government and that Kyouka-Chan, the 14 year old girl has killed 33 people?? And that there are rumours that your president is also an ex-assassin? And Dazai-San has committed too many crimes to count? HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL US THAT WE ARE WORKING WITH MURDERERS??” Kuroo yelled. He was mad. They had put him and his friends at danger, working with murderers and criminals. They really dared to call themselves a </span>
  <em>
    <span>Detective </span>
  </em>
  <span>Agency?? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo turned around to see what his friends thought and they were all shocked (Kenma was also shocked but his face was less expressive). </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Murderers?” Kenma asked, slightly disbelievingly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah what do you mean wanted by the government?” Bokuto added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure that they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>assassins</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Akaashi didn’t seem to believe it. “Maybe they were just messing with you, I saw Kyouka-Chan and she doesn’t exactly look like she killed 33 people Kuroo.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think I’m pranking you?? Ask them!!” Kuroo gestured to the detectives who were all frozen and watching him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then Yosano giggled. “So you just found out. Well it’s not like we were especially trying to hide it. Welcome to the underworld kiddos.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kunikida rolled his eyes and got back to work, Dazai smirking, Ranpo grinning and returning to his candy, Kenji looking surprised but breaking into a laugh too. There were also 2 new people, a ginger with hairpins in his hair, a loose white long sleeve, and a jacket tied around his waist as well as a girl with long black hair and a student’s uniform. The ginger smiled at them sheepishly while the black haired girl laughed at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh you guys are the volleyball high schoolers right?” The orange-haired teenager asked them. He seemed to be around their age, somewhere in his student years. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah…” Kuroo answered, some anger still in his tone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh well, I’m Junichirou Tanizaki, and this is my sister Naomi.” he gestured to the girl. They didn’t look like siblings but maybe they were step-siblings? “You seem pretty mad, you wanna take a seat? I can explain things for you.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo thought it over before agreeing. He hadn’t met this guy yesterday but he seemed relaxed enough and not to mention around their age. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How the hell do you work with </span>
  <em>
    <span>murderers</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Kuroo asked as soon as they were seated on a sofa with the Tanizaki’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is Kenma to you?” Junichirou asked instead, choosing to ignore the question. Kuroo froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean what is your relationship with Kenma?” His voice was slow and calm but serious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s my friend.” Kuroo tried to match Junichirou’s voice, leaving the anger and confusion out of his tone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For a second, Junichirou paused, turning to Dazai. He didn’t ask anything as far as any of them were concerned but Dazai nodded which seemed to give him more confidence. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure you two are just friends?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re good friends, we've known each other since we were kids.” Kuroo answered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So the two of you are close?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, after knowing each other since elementary you would hope so.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you trust him and he trusts you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you love him, whether it’s like a sibling or platonically or whatever, you two care for each other right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is this going? But yes we do.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now what would you do if someone took Kenma from you and threatened to kill him?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why would anyone want to kill him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not important, this is the underworld and people have their sick reasons. Say someone were to kidnap Kenma and torture him in ways more cruel than what your high school imaginations can come up with. What would you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anything and everything to make sure that Kenma is safe, healthy and that the person is punished for it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anything and everything?” Junichirou asked, “Even killing them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think I would need to go that far.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh but the things they’ve done to him. They harm him in the most painful ways until he begs that he would rather be dead, his only wish that he can see you one last time.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo paused as a very disturbing image took over his head. Kenma was all bloodied and bruised, tied up and tears running endlessly down his cheeks. There’s a guy with a most sadistic smile and ready to do more. Kenma begging to see him a last time or just be killed already. No, it was one of the most horrible things he had ever thought of and he refused to let that situation ever happen. So would he kill that person? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, absolutely </span>
  </em>
  <span>his brain offered to him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Same goes for you two,” Junichirou continued, now talking to Akaashi and Bokuto, “I can see how close you are, what would you do if you were put in that situation? The police have no knowledge of their existence so they can’t track them down or find out if you killed them. You know where they are and that you can kill them if you had the guts, so would you? If someone took Naomi from me and harmed her in any way, there is no way I am letting them go. So what would you do?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a pause as they all reflected on that, background noises of people typing and shuffling papers still going. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“....I’d kill them.” Akaashi was the first to answer. “I wouldn’t spare a second and make sure that the person paid for what they did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Same here,” Kenma said, surprising everyone by speaking up next. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one touches Akaashi.” Bokuto agreed, a finality in his voice that showed how loyal he was and that he wasn’t going to change his mind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would kill them too…” Kuroo finally admitted. Kenma was so precious to him that the amount of things he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> do were somewhere between very very little and non-existent. And now apparently murder was taken off of that list too. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course they had always promised that they would kill whoever laid a finger on the person most precious to them but it had never been a reality for them. When would a high schooler whose passion was science and volleyball have the need to actually murder someone? Sure making someone pay their lesson by beating them up if things got extreme but this world put their worst fears into a reality. It was a fight-to-survive world but those who were stronger protected the weaker, survival was literal in this case. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo shook his head. “Assassins only kill for money, how does that justify anything?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s their job,” Junichirou offered plainly. “Also killing isn’t justifiable, I’m just saying that people have their reasons and under the right circumstances, you can become a killer too and find nothing ‘wrong’ about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen volleyball players,” Naomi cut in, “if you’re just going to disagree with my brother, I suggest you move on. My brother has work to be doing you know? Besides, he’s finishing early today because we have some activities to do later.” She said the last part suggestively as she smirked at the ginger and traced a finger down his cheek. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oi! Want me to put it plainly for you?” Dazai asked from his desk, raising his voice just slightly to be heard. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The four of them turned to look at the brunet who smirked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Port Mafia isn’t bad, they honestly aren’t. Neither is the Agency good. You’re not good either, you just said you would commit murder, but you’re not bad because you had your reasons. But that way, what even counts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Who decides what a valid reason to commit a crime is? Why is crime bad? If making someone sad makes someone else happy, does that action of making the first person sad get justified? Is punishing a ‘bad’ person ok because you hate them and don’t believe that the things they did were ‘right’? Listen kids, in your old high school lives, you can believe in right and wrong, but welcome to the real world. Nobody is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and nothing is ever caused by the actions of a single person or by a single action.” Dazai looked at them with a bittersweet smile that looked both happy and pained. He seemed serious though, usual silliness temporarily taking a break. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kuroo let all of that sink in. Now that he thought about it, there was nothing that could actually describe what ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is. Helping others was a kind thing to do but who decided that being kind was good? Be too kind in the wrong situation and face consequences. Back home in Tokyo, they wouldn’t have thought much about the morals of a person but he realised that they had been shielded far too much. The real world wasn’t made up of good guys, bad guys, and useless bystanders who cheer on the hero. (mild MHA slander here,, the plot is just too simple like come one, heroes, villains, and civillians??)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In a way, Kuroo was glad. This world was proving to be helpful, showing them how the real world works and not their protected little high school lives. In a way, Kuroo was ashamed, he had thought that if he got into his dream university and got a good job as a chemist, then he would have all he needed in life. Well, it essentially came down to one thing. You only know what you know, and they didn’t know that they could come to a different world like this, or about this other way of thinking. If after they found out about all this, they still chose to live close-minded lives, that would be their choice. But there’s always going to be a new way of thinking and you can never know everything. Now that they had been exposed to this logic and way of life, he was sure that life when they got back to the Tokyo of their world wouldn’t be the same as they had new perspectives on the world. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So maybe this world wasn’t too bad… well there was still a lot more to learn about them and how their world works, not to mention that they hadn’t tried calling their old phone numbers as yet. But for now Kuroo was pretty sure they could get along with them. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>and then that's that then I guess. </p><p>next chapter is from Chuuya's point of vue and is next to no plot. I mean there is plot but it's more of a joke really, I just wanted to have some fun and so the next chapter is veeeery self indulgent. I'll probably include a summary of what happened at the end but who watches bsd / reads the manga and then goes 'chuuya is so fucking boring i don't want to read a shitpost about him being a dumbass'. well up to you I guess. </p><p>also I hope you can tell by now that I suck at coming up with titles for chapters and also like everything. </p><p>random fun fact: the last chapter will be in Baudelaire's pov</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Charles Baudelaire, a French author, whose most famous book is a book with a collection of poetry by him. Originally called Les Fleurs du Mal in French, it translates to The Flowers of Evil. </p><p>Chuuya Nakahara is a man of short stature and even shorter temper. He liked to wear hats and looked up a lot to French authors. He is a poet. </p><p>(i typed those myself please don't come after me for a site, this is information i remember from before i started the fic)</p><p>OK ENOUGH FANCY WORDS. so i wanted to say, the amount of research i did for this fic is incredible. and when i say that it's incredible, i mean i literally did no research. the only thing i actually searched up at least for this chapter was well Charles' most famous book and what is Poe's ability name called which I DIDN'T EVEN INCLUDE IN THE FIC. i know about NLH and C&amp;P because i'm currently reading C&amp;P and read an article about NLH a few months ago so those were from memory and I'm going to hope that it's accurate because sometimes my memory fails but sometimes it doesn't. </p><p>Also, you can't say i didn't tell you about the haikyuu slander, but if you're cool with it, fear not bc there's more next chapter &gt;:)  sort of a joke. the next chapter is in Kuroo's perspective and it takes a look into the ada and haikyuu char's conflicting morals. </p><p>alsoo the bsd wan! is coming out right now and it is SO ADORABLE like please- if you're not watching it you really should bc even though it's not connected to the main story, there is (shin) soukoku!! also yosano canonically drinks wine and i'm telling you rn that this was kouyou's influence ;)</p><p>alsooo yes, this fic will eventually add other ships and focus more on the haikyuu characters. chapter 4 is a bit of RanPoe but from Akaashi's perspective so it's kind of funny. i'm definitely adding kousanou bc we all know that there isn't enough gL in the world and kousanou is actually a really cool ship. idk if you guys support fukumori but it's gen1 of pm and ada buddies trying to kill each other. </p><p>alsoooo the bsd manga  T T  that's it. that's all there is. the manga is just so  T^T</p><p>alsooooo this chapter was originally going to be two chapters (where there's a line break) but i wanted to keep the events in dazai's perspective instead of ranpo's so that's why this chapter's kind of long. well that also depends on what you count as long but it's not just 3k words. </p><p>haha anyways so happy lunar new year, i hope you guys are having a great day and the next chapters will be posted every thurday!</p><p>(and happy early valentine's day, it sucks that there's covid but yk, for all you lonely bitches [dw i'm with you], i hope you have some fun too and to the not so lonely bitches, don't meet up with anyone unless your country allows it!! lets do our part to slow the spread :) anyways im gonna actually stop now.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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